McCurrie favours rand hedges

Ashburton portfolio manager Wayne McCurrie would park his investments in rand hedges if he was entering the market today, he told Siki Mgabadeli on SAfm’s daily Market Update.

Noting that only about 30% of the JSE is today directly related to South Africa, international events are exerting a far more direct influence on JSE shares, he said in an interview last week.

He’s sceptical about the duration of the “Trump rally” – the rise in stock market prices on optimism following the election of Donald Trump to the US presidency.

His biggest bug bear is the long-bond interest rate. It’s a “big negative” for US and global stock markets because it means the cost of borrowing money for 10 years, for example, had spiked dramatically. “And that, over time, is never good for the stock market,” he said. The first two of the previous three years were dominated by rand weakness, but that turned about dramatically last year, wiping out many gains rand bears had made as commodity prices strengthened.

He believes the rand may continue strengthening for another few months, but it will “inevitably follow its weakening path again and, within the three-year time view, I think the rand-hedge shares will outperform other shares”.

The Nova Property Group is considering the listing of some properties within the group in an effort to repay the holders of the debentures related to these properties.

The board also announced that the full investment capital of the Nova debentures linked to the Silverwater Crossing and Magalieskruin developments would be repaid. Full details of these repayments will be sent to debenture holders in April.

Cryptic communiqué

In a cryptic communiqué to Nova debenture holders last week, the Nova board says it has been “working during the recent past, and has progressed well, in the process of investigating and considering